Author's Note
I wrote this story because the idea of Derpy as a foalsitter cracked me up. Enjoy!
Derpy the Temporary Twin
Since their parents have very demanding jobs and are almost never home, Rumble mostly lives alone with his big brother Thunderlane. That means that when he’s busy, Thunderlane needs a foalsitter to watch over Rumble. Or foalsitters.
The twins Cloudchaser and Flitter have been friends with Thunderlane for a long time, and love foalsitting Rumble. Thunderlane found that two mares were better than one, and Rumble enjoyed hanging out with both of them, so this worked perfectly. But one day, there was a problem.
One morning, Flitter woke up covered in horsey hives. Cloudchaser immediately rushed her to Ponyville Hospital. There, the sick mare was laid down on a bed, itching herself all the while.
“Do you know how long it’ll take for her to get better?” Cloudchaser asked.
“It’d probably be best if she rested here for today.” Nurse Redheart replied. “She should be fine by tomorrow morning.”
Flitter began furiously scratching herself behind the ear with her back leg. “Ugh, I’m in hell!” she groaned.
“Don’t scratch them!” Nurse Redheart said worriedly. “You’ll irritate your skin even more.”
Flitter buried her face into the pillow and sighed.
“Don’t worry, Flitter.” said Nurse Redheart kindly. “You’re in good hooves here at Ponyville Hospital.”
“Well, goodbye for now, sis.” said Cloudchaser. “I’ll be sure to visit you later tonight.” Then she remembered something. “Oh wait, Thunderlane and a couple of his buddies are having a guys’ night tonight! We were going to foalsit Rumble while he was gone.”
“Guess you’ll have to get somepony else to foalsit him with you.” Flitter said weakly.
Cloudchaser nodded. “Yep. I guess I’ll be getting a temporary twin.” She waved goodbye to her sister, then flew out of the hospital.
As Cloudchaser flew through Ponyville, she pondered about who her temporary twin should be. She spotted Raindrops coming out of Sugarcube Corner and decided to ask her. “Hey, Raindrops.” she said. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Sure, Cloudchaser.” Raindrops replied. “What’s up?”
“Can you foalsit Rumble with me tonight? Flitter came down with the horsey hives and she’s in the hospital.”
Raindrops gasped. “Oh no! I hope she gets better soon!” She sighed. “I’m sorry I can’t help you – I’m going to Manehattan with some friends for the next few days and I have to leave before tonight.”
“Oh, that’s all right.” said Cloudchaser. “Have fun in Manehattan!” And she began to fly back up to Cloudsdale.
Back in Cloudsdale, Cloudchaser found that neither Blossomforth nor Silverspeed were available either. “Ah well, I guess it’ll just be me and Rumble tonight.” she said to herself. She was almost home when somepony came out of nowhere and bumped into her. She turned and saw Derpy.
“Oh, sorry, Cloudchaser.” the mailmare said in her usual slow, slurred voice. “I didn’t see you there.”
Cloudchaser sighed. “It’s fine.”
“I’ve just got one more round of deliveries, and then I have the whole afternoon off!” Derpy continued.
“Wait, you’re free tonight?” Cloudchaser asked.
Derpy nodded.
“Well then, do you think you could foalsit Rumble with me this evening? Thunderlane’s busy and Flitter’s sick.”
Derpy smiled. “Oh, sure! See you tonight!” And she flew away to resume her deliveries.
Cloudchaser had known Derpy since fillyhood. She’d been the best young flyer in Cloudsdale until she had an accident which permanently damaged her eyes. Cloudchaser smiled to herself. “Hopefully she doesn’t do too much damage.”
“Well, I have to go now.” Thunderlane said to Rumble later that afternoon. “Soarin and Silver Zoom are probably wondering where I am. See you tomorrow!” And the black stallion flew out the door, leaving Rumble home alone.
Within a few minutes Rumble heard the doorbell ring. “Looks like Cloudchaser’s here.” he said to himself. He got up from the couch, opened the door and saw not only Cloudchaser, but also Derpy.
“Hey, Cloudchaser.” said Rumble. “Why’s Derpy here?”
“Well, since Flitter’s stuck in the hospital, I figured I’d get somepony else to hang out with us instead.” Cloudchaser replied.
“Besides,” added Derpy, “you like muffins, don’t you?”
Rumble smiled. “Of course! Who doesn’t?”
“Awesome!” said Derpy. “I’ll start making them right away!”
If her muffins are as good as everypony says they are, Rumble thought to himself, maybe I should ask her to come over more often.
While Derpy went into the kitchen and set to work on the muffins, Cloudchaser sat down on the couch and turned on the TV. Rumble sat next to her.
“So, what do you want to watch?” Cloudchaser asked.
“Not sure…” Rumble began flipping through the channels until he found a football game. “Oh boy, Manehattan is kicking Vanhoover’s flank!” Rumble laughed. “I think I’ll watch this for a while.”
In a few minutes Derpy joined Rumble and Cloudchaser in front of the TV. “Aren’t you supposed to be keeping an eye on the muffins?” Cloudchaser asked.
“I can take a break.” said Derpy. “They won’t be done for a while.”
“Okay.” Cloudchaser replied. “Just make sure you remember them.”
For the next half hour, the three pegasi watched the football game and shouted at the TV whenever somepony missed a throw. Derpy became so engrossed in the game that she completely forgot about the muffins.
“Do you smell something burning?” Rumble asked.
Derpy sniffed the air. “Yeah. It smells like –” She suddenly noticed the smoke coming from the kitchen. “OH NO! MY MUFFINS!!!” she cried. She dashed into the kitchen, opened the oven and found a dozen badly burnt muffins sitting inside.
“Oh, come on!” Rumble exclaimed.
“Sorry! I just don’t know what went wrong!” Derpy said with a nervous grin as she dumped the blackened muffins into the trash can.
“You forgot about the muffins and left them in there for too long?” Cloudchaser suggested.
“Oh. Right.” said Derpy. “I’ll go to Sugarcube Corner and buy some more.”
“Um… okay.” said Rumble.
“I’ll be right back!” Derpy flew out of the house and down toward Ponyville.
“Hi, Derpy!” said Mrs. Cake as Derpy came into Sugarcube Corner. “What can I get for you?”
“I’ll take a dozen muffins to go.” Derpy replied with a smile. “You know, the usual!”
“Of course!” Mrs. Cake pulled twelve muffins out from the display shelf and placed them in a box. “Here you go!”
“Thanks, Mrs. Cake!” And Derpy flew out of the shop, holding the box of muffins in her mouth.
As Derpy flew back up toward Cloudsdale, the top of the box began to slip. Derpy didn’t realize this and continued flying. Eventually, the box slipped open and all of the muffins fell out. But again, Derpy was unaware.
Back on the ground, Pinkie Pie was on her way to spend the night at her sister Maud’s place when a dozen muffins suddenly fell on her. “Ow!” she exclaimed. “What was that?” Then she looked down and saw the muffins scattered everywhere. “Yay, free muffins!”
When Derpy returned to Cloudsdale, Rumble and Cloudchaser were waiting. “Do you have the muffins?” Rumble asked.
“I sure do!” Derpy replied. “They’re right here!” She put down the box only to find that it was both open and empty. Derpy was very confused. “What happened? They were in here when I left Sugarcube Corner.”
“Did you lose them on the way?” Cloudchaser asked.
“I must have.” said Derpy sadly. “If you want, I can go back and –”
Rumble sighed. “It’s fine. Just forget about the muffins.”
“Oh. Okay.” Derpy turned to sit down on the couch, but her tail swung out and knocked a framed picture off the wall. “Oops! Sorry!”
Rumble flew over to see which picture had been knocked down. “Oh no! That’s a picture of Dad as a colt! We’d better fix it before he and Mom come home tomorrow!”
“Do you want me to do it?” Derpy asked. “Because I can –”
“No, no, no!” Cloudchaser interrupted. “Leave it to me!”
Soon Cloudchaser had managed to get the picture back up on the wall. She sighed with relief upon finding that Derpy had managed to not break anything else.
Over the remainder of the evening, Derpy managed to smash up a plate and a stool, both of which Rumble and Cloudchaser simply threw out. Soon the sky was completely dark except for the moon.
“Okay, Rumble, it’s almost ten.” said Cloudchaser. “Time for you to go to bed.”
Rumble sighed. “Fine.” He turned off the TV and walked upstairs to his room. “G’night, Cloudchaser.” he said as he got into bed and turned out the light.
“Good night, Rumble.” Cloudchaser replied.
“Night, Rumble!” said Derpy. She began to shut the door, but accidentally pulled it off of its hinges. “Oops!”
“What did you do?!” Rumble exclaimed.
“The door broke off. Don’t worry, I’ll fix it!” Derpy dashed to the closet to get a box of screws and a bottle of wood glue. When she returned, she tried to pick the door up and set it straight. But she slipped and the door fell forward and smashed down the entire wall. Rumble was wide awake at this point.
“What in Equestria is that!” Cloudchaser shouted. She raced up the stairs and found the wall of Rumble’s bedroom in pieces. “Derpy, please do not touch anything else! Just stay away from this door and this wall!”
Derpy did as she was told and went back downstairs to sit on the couch.
“Oh, man. I’m going to have to call the construction ponies.” Cloudchaser sighed. She walked into Rumble’s room. “Do you want to sleep in the guest room tonight?”
“At this point, I think that’s the only place I could sleep.” said Rumble. He followed Cloudchaser downstairs to the guest bedroom. After tucking Rumble into bed, Cloudchaser turned off the light and closed the door.
Just then the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it!” said Cloudchaser. She opened the door to find Thunderlane. “Hey, Thunderlane.” she said. “How was your night out?”
“It was awesome!” Thunderlane replied. “We had a lot of fun. Soarin and I had to drag Silver Zoom home after he drank too much!”
Cloudchaser chuckled. “Sounds like a fun time.”
“How did things go with Rumble and Derpy?”
“Rumble’s in bed now, but it was… interesting, to say the least.”
“Nice! Speaking of which, I’m probably going to bed soon myself.” And Thunderlane began to fly upstairs.
“Wait!” Cloudchaser shouted. “I don’t think you should –” But it was too late.
“What the hay happened to the wall!?!” Thunderlane exclaimed.
Cloudchaser rushed up the stairs, as did Derpy. “And that’s why Rumble’s sleeping in the guest room tonight.” said Cloudchaser.
“I just don’t know what went wrong!” said Derpy.
Cloudchaser sighed. “Just leave before you break anything else.”
“Okay!” Derpy flew down the stairs, but tripped and was sent sprawling headlong into Thunderlane’s trophy collection, smashing several of the trophies.
“No!!! Not my trophies!!!” Thunderlane cried.
“Sorry!” Derpy got back up and instead of flying out the door, she smashed straight through the front wall. “Bye! See you later!”
Cloudchaser groaned. “Yeah, when I said interesting, that’s what I meant.”
